how is the revolution not being televised? bring on vegan mashup!

Seriously, how are there not fully vegan cooking shows on Food Network and the like? You don’t have to be vegan to watch ‘em. Are you lactose-intolerant, Kosher, fighting high cholesterol, or just like good food? I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but completely plant-based meals can be as exciting, tasty, filling, and nutritious as ANY omni meals. So what’s up, TV?

I was sent the DVD for Vegan Mashup Season 1 to check out, and I marathoned all six episodes in one sitting. Toni Fiore, Miyoko Schinner, and Terry Hope Romero (plus special guests) keep this thing moving…and before I knew it, I had a good dozen or so recipes that I need to try. (Um…Terry’s ceviche with hearts of palm? Done! Check it out at the bottom of the post!)

Delicious TV is pretty smart to put these ladies together. They’ve got different backgrounds and different styles, so they’ve cast a wide net. What they do have in common is that they’re all down to earth and charming. When they introduce an ingredient that may be unfamiliar to some (tempeh or nutritional yeast), they just give a 2-second explanation so nobody’s lost or bored. Sometimes they’re cooking solo and other times they partner up with a guest or one another. Never a dull moment, and no recipes that are useless (hello, avocado toast) or intimidating.

The recipes are all posted on screen—they do go by pretty quickly so jot ‘em down while you can or you’ll need to go through them again like I will. Right now, it looks like the only way you can watch them is to buy the DVD. I know they were campaigning to get it shown on as many public stations as possible, but not having television myself I shrug my shoulders at whether or not it’s available to me.

They’re trying to put together Season 2 and have a Kickstarter set up. If you were thinking about getting Season 1, it’s available within the pledge levels. The campaign ends July 28, so if you’re gonna do it, do it now. I don’t know from television programming, but this show seems to have a shot—or if not this show exactly, maybe the interest and response to this could get the Food Network execs off their meat-eatin’ butts and give this quickly growing segment what they want, namely to drool at live-action food porn.

I’ve never had fishy ceviche so I can’t say personally how on-the-money this is, but my German Spaniard house guest was pretty impressed—she’s vegan now but has absolutely had the traditional stuff, and she said the hearts of palm are totally perfect in this. Absolutely try this. It’s light and hearty and tangy and makes no use of the oven. (Take that, summer!)

3 Responses to "how is the revolution not being televised? bring on vegan mashup!"

I’ve seen Toni Fiore on the local “Create” PBS station here. (In fact they have several vegan cooking shows that rotate throughout the station schedule. She’s great. Maybe they’ll be rolling this program out soon.